Hands On

Floating City

BELGRADE’S GYPSY HOUSEBOATS ARE THE DWELLINGS OF THE FUTURE.

By Bruce Sterling

NATIVE TO BELGRADE’S TWO RIVERS, THE Sava and the Danube, the splav is made from repurposed industrial junk. This raffish water-craft probably owes a large design debt to Belgrade gypsies, who are commonly scrap metal dealers. As Eastern Europe’s rock-bottom underclass, many gypsies literally live inside Belgrade junkyards, in fantastic sheet metal huts wired together out of anything handy.

So how do you make your own free-living splav houseboat? It’s intriguingly simple! First, get your hands on some empty German chemical-industry barrels — hopefully these drums held something nontoxic, such as paraffin or corn syrup. They’re cheap or free, ...

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